maybe i go over the top with this concept, but its crept it's way into everything we do....business cards, postcard, website, how you present to a prospective shop/gallery/wholesale buyer, it all matters, and does make a difference...everytime you are presenting yourself to the public...i guess it amounts to branding in a way, a whole other topic

....... the venues/shops/shows you choose...dont sell yourself short just to get the stuff 'out there', if it is not the proper context it is not going to work out for you in the long run...

A BullsEye once again, Cass.

An important component here in this concept is a serious and highly objective critique of your own work so that you can match the work to the market / venue. Sometimes (read that "most of the time") we tend to see our own work through a set of very rosy glasses. We somtimes think our work would fit perfectly in a high end venue.... when that is not the case at all. This is the hardest part of this idea to deal with.

best,

..................john

It's fascinating- when I think back on how excited I was at some of my early work, and how clumsy it looks now. Impartiality is pretty tough.

On the flip side, I think that it's easy to be hyper-sensitive/critical about 'flaws' in what we create... when those flaws aren't obvious to someone who's less close to the process.

if everything is going as it should, you will always look back at old work and have a little twinge of 'ugggh!' that means you have moved forward, onward, and upward....if 5 years later the stuff is still the same? then theres a problem!

i love seeing my old stuff, like when i go to my mom's, (lol , an avid keeper of early work she never asked for), and see the flaws, goofy shapes, and sometimes the seed of an idea that is still being resolved to this day, thats fun

getting turned down for things, if you find out why, can be one of the invaluable lessons in progression...being hypercritical of yourwork helps too, probably a charater flaw, but i'm never satisfied, i can Always find out what is wrong with my stuff

One of the gems of business I picked up and ran with when I started doing shows was, to put it very simply, 'Fake it 'til you make it!' Meaning even if you don't think your stuff is great, SHOW the world it IS until you start to feel that it is. Set up an ok display, and your work looks... ok. Set up the right spectacular display, and your work LOOKS spectacular. Of course, it helps if your stuff IS spectacular!